Ex-offender Programs Put To Test

State Cuts Threaten Nonprofits That Help Former Inmates Get Jobs

January 12, 2003|By KEITH RUSHING Daily Press

"I'd leave it blank and let them call so I can deal with it," Everald said. He said he wanted to explain his criminal background in person and talk about the turnaround he'd made in his life. But no employers called him.

Everald stayed with his family and eventually got work with a contractor who didn't ask questions about his past.

Even with PAPIS' help, some ex-offenders just don't make it.

Michael P. Cates, of Virginia Beach, served 17 years of a 30-year sentence for rape and sodomy. Step-Up tried to help him last spring.

He recently landed back in jail after several months of freedom.

Step-Up helped Cates get a job with a temporary agency within two weeks of his release. He was doing road construction work and renting an efficiency at the Villager Lodge on Jefferson Avenue.

But a few months after his release, Cates stopped communicating with his parole officer, moved from the Villager Lodge and didn't register his new address with the State Police Sex Offender's Registry, which is a violation of the law.

A state trooper arrested Cates last month on three counts of failing to respond to the registry. Cates told the trooper he thought his probation guidelines were too strict, and he didn't want his girlfriend to know about his past.

Now Cates faces a possible 13-year prison sentence.

Brandt said ex-offenders like Cates often feel pressured by the terms of their release and the requirements of probation and parole. Some who do all the right things after being released from prison still face significant hurdles, she said.

One ex-offender who was recently offered a job at a Target store had to wait two weeks for a parole officer to verify his address so that he could start work.

Brandt said his parole officer was on vacation and no other parole officers were available to verify his address. So, the offender simply had to wait.

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In October, Gov. Warner announced $860 million in cuts to make up part of an approximately $1 billion shortfall in the budget. The Department of Criminal Justice Services, which distributes PAPIS funds, told the groups the state wasn't going to fund them for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2003. Instead, they'd have to find a local donor who could offer matching money to receive some federal funding earmarked for ex-offenders and drug addicts.

Most PAPIS groups have found municipalities that are providing matching money. But at least one program at the Middle Peninsula Regional Jail closed its doors in early December when the jail board refused to put up a matching grant.

The jail's superintendent, David Harmon, said the jail board was concerned that if it came up with $5,000 in matching money for PAPIS, the state would ask the board to put up matching money for other inmate programs.

"If they fund one, would they fund them all?" asked Harmon, explaining the concerns.

The jail superintendent predicts that the loss of the program may hinder the success of those returning to society.

"Some of these guys that may not have come back, will come back," Harmon said.

The fiscal problems are coming at a time when criminologists and some lawmakers have become more convinced of the value of rehabilitation and re-entry programs that help ex-offenders transition to life outside. The new thinking reverses an old trend.

"We've seen a really strong trend in the late '70s to the '90s to stop worrying about what happens to prisoners," said Todd Clear, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Law in New York.

He said there was a broad consensus among experts in the 1980s and 1990s that programs to help offenders weren't effective.

That belief among criminologists co-existed with a "get tough" attitude toward criminals that was popular with the public when violent crime was high. Sentences were lengthened throughout the country in response, and parole was abolished in many states.

"Politicians gained electoral capital by saying they were going to make prisons tough places," Clear said. He added that jail administrators would try to hide rehabilitation programs and recreational programs out of fear that legislators would cut funding in order to eliminate them.

In the last few years, a new consensus has emerged that programs targeted at offenders who are leaving prison are worthwhile.

"When you're comparing having programs to not having programs -- it's better to have programs purely from a public safety standpoint," Clear said.

The problems ex-offenders face in the first days and weeks after release are significant.

"You see your old pals," Clear said. "Suddenly, you're in charge of your own life for the first time in years."

Sheriff Charles "Chuck" Moore, who runs the Newport News jail, called Step-Up an outstanding program. A Step-Up case manager visits the jail regularly to talk with inmates about ways to prepare for life on the outside.